SC - Semi-Rant Re: MMMM, good holiday food!

[Philip & Susan Troy]

> From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
> Subject: SC - FW: MMMM, good holiday food!

> >From CNN:
> >
> >Norwegian seasonal delicacies include
> > fermented fish and
> > fried sheep's head
> >
> > December 19, 1997
> > Web posted at: 11:14 a.m. EST (1614 GMT) 
> >
> > OSLO, Norway (Reuters) -- Forget the haute cuisine of France, the
> > rich pasta sauces of Italy and Japan's delicate sushi.

Once again, some irresponsible moron [and I'm not referring to the Noble
Lord Bear!] seeks to amuse, enlighten, and perpetuate and spread
prejudices, as if that weren't already quite adequate in this world. 
> >
> > If cod soaked in caustic soda, half-rotten trout or fried sheep's head
> > excite your gastric juices, then maybe you should  consider a gourmet
> > trip to Norway in December. Not only is the twelfth month a time for
> > skiing, Christmas and scenery of snow-decked fir trees and wooden
> > cabins, it marks what Norwegians consider the height of the culinary
> > calender.

Reading the above paragraph carefully, you can see it is pretty clearly
intended to appeal to the worst tendencies of xenophobia and dietary
narrow-mindedness on the part of the reader/viewer. The first two terms
are essentially half-truths, while the third, the reference to fried
sheep's head, apparently needs no embellishments to gross us out.
(Although the "half-rotten trout" and the fried sheep's head are both
much more likely to appear on Icelandic menus than in Norwegian ones,
anyway.)

The "cod soaked in caustic soda" is presumably a reference to lutefisk:
the extremely hard, dried fish is soaked to reconstitute and tenderize
in a weak solution of lye or potash, which would be somewhat caustic in
their undilute form. Since they are, however, dilute, this is
irrelevant. Overall, the process (and the anticipated reaction) is kind
of like watching an American housewife sprinkling meat tenderizer on a
chuck steak, and running to the nearest latrine to upchuck. Now, there's
no law that says you have to like the dish, especially if you've never
tasted it, or even if you have, but there's a big difference between
something being intrinsically awful, and being not to your taste.

As for the "half-rotten trout", this is just nonsense. It's not clear
whether the dish referred to is one of the dishes stored for a long time
in a cold cellar (originally a sort of box dug in the gravel beach),
which would result either in gravlax, which is cured and not by any
remote stretch of the imagination rotten, or something like hakarl,
which is similarly stored until it begins to break down under the action
of enzymes found in the muscle tissue. It's too darned cold for any
bacteria to grow, and the process is essentially the same as what is
used to turn a recently-killed side of beef in rigor mortis into
well-aged, butter-tender prime steaks. I'm not quite sure which half of
"rotten" this is referring to. Again, even though it admittedly  might
not be your cup of tea. 

There are also dishes made from herring cured with half-quantities of
salt, and stored in sealed cans, but not pasteurized or sterilized
(surstromming?). There's some lacto-baccilic action there (the cans get
kinda puffy, I understand). This is a variant of what we would call
pickled herring. Most of the pickled herring we encounter (those of us
who do, anyway) is pickled in vinegar, but anyone who has eaten a
half-sour dill pickle and lived to tell the tale has survived the worst
and most dangerous aspects of the surstromming experience.

As for fried sheep's head, I can only say that I suspect it would depend
on the presentation. I'm not a big one for food that looks back at me,
but then I've never seen any form of animal head dish that didn't
process the heads until they were largely unrecognizable. Things like
head cheese, or tete de veau vinaigrette of ravigotte aren't just a head
on a plate, a la John the Baptist. They are dishes of meat, usually a
fairly even mixture of standard muscle meat, with some connective tissue
cooked soft, such as you might find on oxtails or pigs' feet, or even
short ribs. Also some skin, again, found on things like pigs' feet. For
those into gelatinous foods, this shouldn't be a problem. For those who
aren't, deep-frying is probably the best way to eliminate the potential
for quiveriness. I remember eating a really, really, fine dish of
deep-fried pigs' feet in a Philipino restaurant some years ago, and have
tried several times to duplicate the dish. Never quite got it right, but
have come close. There's no reason fried sheep's head couldn't be quite
similar. Again, this is not the same as saying people have to eat and
love the dish. It does, however, mean, that one shouldn't be too
judgemental until they have tried it, and the author of the CNN text
seems to be implying that the dish is pretty weird. Now that we have
successfully cloned sheep, and also produced animals (frogs, mice and
such) without heads, we are surely well on our way to eliminating the
problem of What To Do With The Sheep's Head. Until that time comes,
however, if people want to eat a sheep's head, more power to them. To
eat some parts of an animal, and throw away others that are edible, is
the type of irresponsible and actively hostile act that almost
eliminated the American bison. Again (and hopefully for the last time,
I'll point out that) this is not an attack on anyone's personal
preferences, but rather on the kind of thinking that causes people to
dismiss perfectly viable protein sources for reasons that they have not
examined fully.   
> >
> > Most specialties are still prepared by methods dating back six or
> > seven hundred years, when long winters and freezing temperatures
> > between November and March left the ground ice-packed and all
> > supplies had to be conserved and stored.

Most cuisines are are based on the day-to-day, tangible needs of the
people that created them. This is no different.
> >
> > Beer flows freely as restaurants fill with Norwegians clamoring for
> > their annual dose of seasonal fare. Such is the tradition that
> > long-time emigrants as far afield as the United States and Singapore
> > still join in the feasting.

Well, d**n! They're eating sheep's head and rotten fish, fer heaven's
sake. Of course they're gonna need a stiff drink! ;  ) And once you've
gotten used to the cuisine of Singapore, you are, of course, ready for
anything ;  ) !!! (The previous statements are intended to amuse, and do
not reflect the opinions of management.)
> >
> > But, even with the most romantic, candle-lit surroundings, many
> > Norwegian winter dishes are likely to present a challenge to a
> > non-native palate.

Exactly. Likely to present a challenge to non-Norwegians (but to
increasing numbers of Norwegians, as well) but really for no better
reason than that some people don't like to eat things they aren't
accustomed to eating regularly.

> > "Most traditional dishes are based on three months of production and
> > nine months of consumption," Astri Riddervold, a food writer and
> > retired doctor of ethnology, told Reuters. "All basic foods had to be
> > preserved, and the type of food and method were very dependent on
> > geographical factors."

And, coincidentally, are often great picnic foods and sea rations for
those going a-Viking!
> >
> > Topping the menu of December delights is "lutefisk" or lye fish,
> > which any self-respecting Norwegian will have at least once before
> > Christmas. Lutefisk is rehydrated dried cod soaked in a strong
> > alkaline solution for several days until the fish is soft enough for
> > a finger to be pressed through without meeting resistance.
> >
> > Nowadays the alkali is usually caustic soda, but documents dating
> > back to the Middle Ages tell that the solution was made from the
> > ashes of birch tree. Some folklore says the dish originated when
> > people scavenging for food after a wooden house burned down found cod
> > lying sodden in ashes.

Boy, if all those stories were true, the world would be so much
simpler...
> >
> > After soaking, the cod is rinsed for several days in running cold
> > water before cooking is completed by either steaming or poaching. The
> > result is a translucent golden color fillet with a stiff-jelly
> > consistency. Lovers of lutefisk say that, if cooked to perfection,
> > each layer of fish meat should stand apart from the next.
> >
> > "Lutefisk is unique, the taste is very weak but the consistency is
> > very important," Riddervold said. "It is an art to be a lutefisk
> > cook, it mustn't be too jelly."
> >
> > Lutefisk tastes surprisingly bland and is usually enhanced by sauces,
> > which differ depending on region. In the east, where pigs were
> > traditionally farmed, molten pork fat with crispy bacon shavings is
> > poured lavishly over the fish.

To whom, exactly, is it a surprise that cod, air-dried, soaked in an
alkalai solution, and then rinsed for several days until the pH is
neutral again, and then cooked with fairly minimalistic seasonings and
served with fairly minimalistic sauces, is bland? Not me!
> >
> > In the western part of Norway white sauce with mustard seeds is more
> > common, and in the north Norway's famous brown goat's cheese with
> > syrup is the accompaniment.

Ah, gjetost. I'd say that saying lutefisk is a standard accompaniment to
gjetost cheese in any particular place is akin to saying pigs in
blankets traditionally accompany canapes, little fried meatballs on
toothpicks, and miniature spring rolls. Possibly true, but not exactly
the whole story, if you know what I mean.

One thing I found fascinating was the fact that among the ordinary,
well-known foods of France, Italy, and Japan mentioned in contrast to
the the exotic Norwegian festival foods, was sushi, which even ten years
ago, would probably not have appeared in a context similar to the one
used. This suggests that tastes do change, and that you can't keep a
good fish down, so to speak, even if it is half-rotten. Of course, if it
was rotten, you might not want to keep it dow--well, you get the idea,
I'm sure ;  ).

Adamantius, whose Christmas Eve dinner at his mother-in-law's house
included a soup made with winter melon and frog's legs, both chicken and
duck served with the heads on, or at least on the platter, and excellent
whole barbecued prawns with a ketchup-based sauce.
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